Mac OS X applications downloaded from Internet stuck with "circle with diagonal line" icon

After I've downloaded an application from the Internet and dragged it into my Applications folder it is shown with a "prohibited" crossed out circle icon. When I click on it the first time I get a popup dialog confirming that I want to run this program that was downloaded from the web.

enter image description here

That's all well and good, but even after I click OK the icon still is stuck like this until I log out and/or reboot the system. Is there any way to get it to display the application's real icon without rebooting?

John Kugelman

Posted 2010-03-05T01:22:16.403

Reputation: 1 620

Answers

Drag the app to your desktop first, and wait for it to finish loading from the .dmg file. It will get its proper icon. Then drag it to the Applications folder, or on the alias in the .dmg, if one is supplied.

JRobert

Posted 2010-03-05T01:22:16.403

Reputation: 6 128

Need to add that you do not need to drag the shortcut of the app on the desktop back. Just wait a while is enough. In case you do drag the shortcut back to Applications folder, you will now have 2 icons, one of which is the shortcut. Move the shortcut to Trash. – Kim Stacks – 2012-06-02T16:03:18.423

I haven't seen that happen. When I do just as I described, I get one app in my Applications folder with it's proper icon showing. I could (but usually don't) drop it on the dock if I want a shortcut there. (I use 10.6; perhaps 10.7 behaves differently?) – JRobert – 2012-06-02T17:53:25.740

In Terminal, try this:

killall -KILL Finder

This restarts the Finder, and that should make Finder refresh everything, including icons.

trolle3000

Posted 2010-03-05T01:22:16.403

Reputation: 1 670

1That did restart my dock but it didn't fix the icon. – John Kugelman – 2010-03-05T04:43:16.643